Page 107 of Shadow Operative

She wasn’t sure.

She wanted to react. Wanted to say something. To do something. To ask questions.

But she couldn’t.

She was frozen where she was. Even her vocal cords seemed immobile.

“I need something that you have,” the intruder said. “And you’re going to give it to me.”

“I’m never going to do that,” Rob said. “Never.”

“Nia?” A deep voice called to her, jostling her from the moment.

Yet, just as she was frozen in real life, she was also frozen in the memory.

“Nia,” the voice said louder.

The sound tried to pull her back, but she wasn’t ready to come. She wanted to see this man’s face. To recognize him.

But the memory was still blank.

No matter how hard she tried to remember, she couldn’t.

Someone shook her. “Nia!”

She blinked.

Her thoughts slammed back into the present.

She saw Gage standing in front of her, a wrinkle of worry on his brow.

“Are you okay?” He gripped her arms.

She started to say fine but stopped herself. “A memory came back.”

“What?” His voice trailed with anticipation. “Do you remember what happened?”

“Not all of it.” Not even enough of it to answer very many of her questions.

But if this memory came back then maybe more would too.

Gage listened as Nia recited what she remembered.

She’d been so close to recalling who the person might have been. Even if Gage hadn’t snapped her from the thoughts, he wasn’t sure she would have remembered more. Not based on what she’d said.

But now it was clear that someone had come into the apartment and wanted something. It still didn’t makesense why Nia had come up here with Rob. The move didn’t fit her personality or Rob’s.

They could figure that out later.

Right now, Gage wondered if the answers were somewhere in this room.

The memory had hit Nia after she’d looked at that tablet. Was that a coincidence?

Gage looked at the screen, but he didn’t see anything of note. Only a whole bunch of app icons.

He frowned. Maybe the tablet hadn’t triggered anything.

His only hope was that with time, Nia’s memories would come back. That the pieces would come together. That answers would be found.

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